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The Dime Novel and the Detective Story

Pam Bedore first became captivated with dime novels during a fateful encounter in the college library rare books room at the University of Rochester, where she was studying as a graduate student.

“The books I saw that day were about a thousand of the 1,465 Nick Carter dime novels,” says Pamela Bedore, now an assistant professor of English and writing coordinator at UConn’s Avery Point campus. “That first year, while I was doing my doctoral coursework, I was very methodical. I’d go to the Rare Books Room and read dime novels for three hours each week.”

Reading those late 19th-century books, Bedore began to explore the dime store novels, discovering the core elements of detective fiction that can be found in the writings of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and in stories later developed for film, radio, and television. She traces those discoveries in a new book, Dime Novels and the Roots of American Detective Fiction, published in November by Palgrave/MacMillan as part of the Crime Files Series.

Detective stories began to become popularized with Nick Carter and Allan Pinkerton. Carter was a fictional character who first appeared in an 1886 series of popular books that were written by several different writers. Allan Pinkerton opened the nation’s first private detective agency and later wrote memoirs in the early 1900s based on some of his cases. He subsequently appeared as a character in various dime novels. The phrase dime novel is often used to describe various forms of late 19th- and early 20th-century popular fiction.

“Maybe 30 people wrote the Carter dime novels, but three people wrote most of them,” says Bedore. “The author of Nick Carter was declared dead by The New York Times three times with these different authors.”

“Pinkerton is a very interesting character to look at,” she adds. “He appears in numerous dime novels. Dashiell Hammett, who wrote The Maltese Falcon, was briefly a Pinkerton detective before becoming a writer.”

Join us for a talk by Gina Barreca,2018 UCONN BOARD OF TRUSTEESDISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH

All great works of fiction, poetry and dramaâas well as texts forming mythologies, religions, national epics to heroic sagasâhave loneliness at the heart of their narrative. From Persephone to Peter Pan, from âFrankensteinâ to âFrozen,â the stories we pass along are saturated with unwilling isolation.âOnly around half of Americans say they have meaningful, daily face-to-face social interactions,â according to a 2017 study. A former U.S. Surgeon General argues that âWe live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s.â We need more than social media. We need social contact. We need community. How can we break through the loneliness barrier? Being alone when in need of companionship is more than sad; itâs an epidemic.Chronic loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. We need to change our national story and, often, our personal ones as well.Even the concept of the âlone wolfâ is a myth. Wolves hunt in packs.

Reception to follow.

For more information about this event, or if you are an individual who requires special accommodation to participate, please contact the CLAS Deanâs Office at (860) 486-2713.

A liberal arts and sciences degree prepares students with the tools they need to excel across a wide range of careers. Given the number of options available to you, it can be overwhelming to narrow down career choices. Attending CLAS Career Night will provide you exposure to career opportunities for CLAS students.

This semesterâs focus will be on research-based careers. During this event you will engage with CLAS alumni, learn about various occupations, and gain insight about how to best prepare for your future career.

The McNair Scholars Program and the Office of Undergraduate Research invite you to join us for a brown bag research seminar.

Birds, Bacteria, and Bioinformatics: Why Evolutionary Biology is the Best

Sarah Hird, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

This series is open to all undergraduate and graduate students, and is designed especially for students conducting (or interested in conducting) STEM research. These seminars are opportunities to learn about research being pursued around campus, to talk with faculty about their path into research, and to ask questions about getting involved in research.

About CLAS

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the academic core of learning and research at UConn. We are committed to the full spectrum of academics across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. We give students a liberal arts and sciences education that empowers them with broad knowledge, transferable skills, and an ability to think critically about important issues across a variety of disciplines.